1. MetaLinkWeb SiteA portion of the MetaLink web site is nowavailable at ITEC.Leon Collins, Wesley Anastasi and DennisAharanwa have found a spider product called Teleport Pro (<http://www.tenmax.com>)that allows you to scoop a web site. We have used FrontPage for this inthe past, but we were unable to have FrontPage grab the secure MetaLinksite.

We have a developmental site availableon the SCADM website (<http://www.itec.suny.edu/scadm>)which points to the more than 300,000 files using more than 8G of disk. Weplan on updating this information once a week or so. Please look for theMetaLink url on the above page.

The password to access the site is thesame as for the previous bulletins (<http://www.itec.suny.edu/scadm/bulletins/oracle_bulletins.htm>)web site (if you need username and password, please e-mailscadm@itec.mail.suny.edu<mailto:scadm@itec.mail.suny.edu>).

The site contains bulletins,documentation, white papers, product desupport information, certificationmatrices etc.We will also being pulling down TARs fromOracle and putting on our site for your perusal. These will be updatedevery 15 minutes or so, such that you will no longer have to wait for us toupdate you.

Please let us know how you like our newaddition and what else we might be able to do on your behalf.Submitted by Mike Notarius(Mike.Notarius@itec.mail.suny.edu<mailto:Mike.Notarius@itec.mail.suny.edu>)

2. Oracle8.1.7 on Alpha OpenVMS

ITEC SCADM received information at onepoint that Oracle 8i Release 3 (8.1.7) for Alpha OpenVMS would be orderable andavailable at the end of December 2000. That has not happened; however, weare proactively monitoring the release of 8.1.7 for Alpha Open VMS. Assoon as it becomes orderable, we will place the order and notify campuses oftheavailability.

Kathy,I am not sure whether I answered thisquestion for you previously,but I wanted to make sure that youunderstood that latest status of thissituation.

First of all, thank you for yourcontinued support of the OpenVMSplatform at the SUNY system. I canremember presenting to one campus,perhaps Stony Brook(?) in the 1990timeframe. We really appreciate yourcommitment!

For the Tru64 UNIX group, the decisionbetween Oracle and Compaq wasmade that it would be implemented inOracle 8.1.7 for Tru64 (and NOTOpenVMS). I have seen the de-supportadvisories that went out last Summer(2000), but I am certain that not allcustomers received them, and that ofthose who did receive the advisory, somethought it applied to OpenVMS aswell. So, you are not alone.

There was a point in time when wethought we were very close to adecision to implement byte/word in Oracle8.2 for OpenVMS. This would makethe statement true: "Oracle 8.1.7 onOpenVMS is the last version that willrun on systems with Alpha technologyolderthan EV56". HOWEVER, the decisionto implement it in 8.2 (Q3-2001) wasneverconsummated.

Since Oracle 8.1.7 has already beenfinalized and sent toManufacturing & Distribution, it isclear that byte/word support was NOTincluded in 8.1.7. Therefore systems withANY Alpha technology can run8.1.7. What remains to be seen is whetherit is implemented in 8.2 or not.If it is implemented, then 8.2 (alsocalled 9i) would require hardware thatis EV56 or newer.

Now, to your situation of educationalinstitutions having limitedbudgets and resources. We are certainlycognizant of this. We plan to havehardware upgrade programs in place thatease some of the financial impact.We are working with Oracle to ensure thateducational institutions are givenfavorable treatment. After all, as youandI well know, the studentsgraduating from universities provide thetalent pool of the future. It is inour best interest to have these graduatesleave school with positiveexposure to OpenVMS.

We will work with you to minimize theimpact of a hardware upgrade,should that be necessary. We are stilladdressing the decision to implementbyte/word support in 8.2. We will try toapprise you of any update. Couldyou please do me the favor of remindingmein a month or two that I owe youan update.

Recent SUNY lists (factreps-l, fact-l,factcom and sunytc-l) have been moved to the ITEC listserv server(ls.suny.edu). The advantage of having SUNY lists on this server is if you wish to send amessage to multiple lists but wish subscribers to only receive onemessage. The SUNY Training Center needs to reach as many people as possible with theirannouncements but did not want multiple postings to be received by people onmore than one list. Getting as many SUNY lists as possible on the ITEClistserv will help provide this service.